


If I Should Dust Before I Wake

by Anonymous



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Horror, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fanfiction, Inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 14:52:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14357766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Buffy moves into an old, desolate, mansion with her mother but it soon seems they are not alone, something evil resides alongside them, trapped within the abandoned house, moving within its walls and whispering its secrets.Eventually, Buffy comes face to face with the creature and comes to understand why it is imprisoned there. This knowledge puts eighteen-year-old, human, Buffy in a dangerous situation as she begins to learn about a world she never knew existed and fight against an evil she has no chance of defeating.Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.





	If I Should Dust Before I Wake

**Author's Note:**

> ‘I pray the lord my soul to take,’  
> ‘Hush little baby, don't say a word  
> And never mind that noise you heard  
> It's just the beasts under your bed  
> In your closet, in your head’
> 
> Enter Sandman, Metallica.

Chapter Notes:

Joyce and Buffy move to a mansion in the Yorkshire Dales, England. Joyce fixes up mansions for a living and Buffy is taking a gap year before college.

They arrive at the run down mansion but is everything as it seems?

Chapter 1

***The Year 1900***

“Don’t do this, you bastard!” The elder vampire heard screamed from the house as he pulled the door to the jet black carriage closed outside the mansion.

His brunette travelling companion lay her head in his lap and whimpered, her full trust placed in the hands of a brutal killer, her Sire.

“Hush now, darlin’, you’re safe with daddy, I won’t ever let the idiot Childe hurt you again, the boy will probably dust without you in a few weeks. What a pretty thought that is, hmm?” The dark-haired vampire soothed his charges long dark locks before holding her head and grinding his crotch against her face lustily as he leered at the half mad creature.

The one other riding in the carriage, a beautiful blonde, rolled her eyes and stared out of the window, fully aware of the sinful nature of her consort and expressing mild irritation at his actions.

The desolate moorland careened away in the darkness, thick fog and frightened animal shrieks spooking the horses as they raced into the distance. Still, the steeds steamed ahead, whipped by the driver into submission.  
....

They had left him far behind and he could only look on from inside the mansion as the carriage lantern moved further away before it flickered out completely, leaving him hopeless and alone in the gloom.  
He picked up an unlit oil lamp from the table and threw it through the arched window, sending fragments of glass and oil onto the ornate Victorian rug as he roared his frustration.  
…………………………………………………………………………………………………

***Present Day – Yorkshire, England***

Fiddling with the radio, she finally found a channel which played something remotely modern through the static, before losing the signal again.

“Honey, we’re out of range up here on the moor and that white noise is giving me a headache.” Joyce said, swiping her daughters hand aside and turning the tuner to the off position.

Buffy sat back with a harrumph and crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know why you had to move us here in the first place, mom, it’s, like, the middle of nowhere, I haven’t seen a house for miles.” Buffy pouted.

The windshield wipers squeaked back and forth, attempting to hold back the rain which lashed the Yorkshire Dales.

Her mom renovated old houses and mansions for a studio in Hollywood, making them fit for filming Gothic Horror movies and atmospheric costume dramas. Her new project was to create a setting for an adaptation of Emily Brontë's, Wuthering heights, and she had found the perfect run down mansion to renovate. J.L. Summers was the best in her field but being the best meant a lot of travel for them both, as well as Buffy changing schools frequently. Instead of the teen grasping at the chances she was given to travel the world with her mom and go to school in different countries, meeting new people and embracing their cultures, Buffy didn’t see their constant moves as an opportunity, more rather a chore to be whined about. She felt like an Army brat. It was a given that moving was always inconvenient but she would still rather follow her mom across the world than stay with her dad and his newest bimbo girlfriend, who was called Misty and was only five years Buffy’s senior.

Before this move she had finally graduated High School and her mom had asked her whether she wanted to go to college back in California or come with her to the back of beyond, in the north of England. Of course, she jumped at the chance for the latter option, leaving all her friends and her boyfriend as it seemed like such a better alternative than spending the summer before college in the sunshine, enjoying time off at the beach and doing nothing, Buffy thought sardonically. The truth was, she knew she would really miss her mom if she stayed in Cali. and she wasn’t ready for her mom not to be there. If her mom went away, then the only home she’d ever known went with her and she wasn’t ready to stand on her own two feet, not just yet.

“Buffy.” Joyce said, her warning tone sounded exasperated as the elder Summers woman wondered why every trip had to begin in this way. She thought her daughter had begun to grow up, especially when she agreed to come on this trip of her own accord and to defer college for a year while she decided what she wanted to do with her life. Joyce blamed herself, she had led a hippy-like, nomadic lifestyle which had ruined her first marriage but she genuinely thought introducing her daughter to a self-reliant lifestyle would be the making of her. Kids these days were too entitled and almost none ever got to see the world in the way her daughter had. “Why, I’m so eager to have this conversation once again with you.” Joyce said sternly, “Might I remind you, light of my life, fruit of my loins, that you agreed to come this time. I gave you the option of college in Cali, you could’ve stayed in dorms or with your father.”

Buffy wriggled her nose in distaste, “Fruit of my…Eww, mom.” She complained, looking up as the pelting rain cleared and they headed down a rocky outcrop, the road diving by forty-five degrees as the valley rose beside them, its alternating hues of all shades of green mingled in with lilacs, plums and scattered golds of wild heather, crossing large expanses as craggy rocks met a stormy, steel grey skyline. She supposed it was pretty in its own way, but the way it extended as far as the eye could see made her feel even more alone. The nearest town was thirty miles away and she wondered how she was ever going to meet anyone. Her thoughts flittered back to Josh, the guy she’d been seeing back in California. It wasn’t ever going to be the type of impassioned romance she read about in books but it was comfortable and, well, nice. If she was honest, it hadn’t ripped her heart out to leave him but she would miss him all the same.

A house grew from a dot on the distant landscape and became larger as they drove further down the hill into the valley. Buffy ignored her mom as she muttered something about being glad they’d hired a Land rover as she navigated the drop on the steep hill.

It began to rain again as they passed foreboding, rusted, wrought iron, arched gates and pulled into the long gravel drive, its dirty stone had seen better days, as had the overgrown garden at the front of the house, its grass grew a few feet high and its trees and bushes dense and overrun.

A roll of thunder swept over the valley as they pulled up to the front of the house, its sweeping archways battered by the rain and its local Yorkshire stone masonry dampened from light tans and mottled russets, to dingy bronze and burnt coffee, its lime mortar in desperate need of re-pointing.

Joyce ran from the Land rover with a newspaper shielding her head, holding a bunch of antique and rusty keys, finally shaking herself off with a grin as the rain stopped as suddenly as it had started. After some jiggling of the keys and turning of the door handle, Joyce managed to free it and waved to Buffy with the same animated smile she got when she was enthusiastic about a project and couldn’t wait to get started.

Buffy shielded her eyes as blinding sunshine poured over the rugged landscape and hopped out of the Land rover, heading to grab some bags from the trunk.

The sun glinted against one of the higher panes of glass, Buffy noted they were filthy and guessed she would be the one stuck with the job of cleaning them, as was her mom’s way, nothing was ever free in Buffy’s life, including her allowance. She tucked a stray tendril of hair behind her ear and caught a flicker of movement from one of the upper windows in her peripheral vision. She stared at the window in question but only saw the drapes swaying. Experience said there were probably birds or bats up there, she shivered, she didn’t like flying critters.

Hauling her bags onto her back she headed inside to see what they were up against this time.

......................................

“Looks like we’ve got company again.” The voice muttered to no-one chuckling maniacally as no-one had lived there for thirty years. “They won’t stay, they never stay….” It whispered.


End file.
